Rothera, Antarctica

View from Old Bransfield, looking north, at around 11:30 am.

Rothera, Antarctica

With the sun just skirting below horizon we are treated to hours of beautiful low light. This is just around the point, looking east towards Pour Quoi Pas island.

Rothera, Antarctica

One of the highlights of wintering at an Antarctic base is Midwinters. It's taken as seriously as Christmas is at home, and of course, there are presents. Unlike at home, there is no chance of popping into town for Christmas shopping so we make do with what we can find on base. At the beginning of winter we each pulled a name out of a hat. I got Adam comms and, after much debate, I began designing a patchwork quilt made out of fabrics from all over base. Here it is in the early stages, with pit room curtains, fleece sleeping bag liners, FID shirts, ventile, orange overalls, tent fabric, burnt tea-towels, BAS t-shirts, hoodies and badges, and a bit of Javelin Jones' parachute.

Rothera, Antarctica

With day light hours rapidly dwinding we have to take every opportunity to get out and enjoy it, even if it means taking a few hours off in the middle of the day on a Thursday. Ash took Tim and me out to Stork bowl for a few runs.

Rothera, Antarctica

Rothera, Antarctica

 The view across Ryder Bay out to one of my favourite mountains, looking particularly wintery.

Rothera, Antarctica

Icicles forming over the doorway to Old Bransfield.

Rothera, Antarctica

The Rothera 2012 wintering team at sun-down with what is left of our flag. At sun-up Scott (the youngest member of the team) will raise a new flag. From left to right: Dr Rob doc, Dave, Tom, Phil, Jacko, Dale, Steve, Muzza, me, Jack, Ash George, Scott, Mr Boat, Ash, Greendog, Justin and Adam. Thanks very much to Adam for the great photo.

Rothera, Antarctica

Sun-down at Rothera. Following tradition, at solar noon, the oldest member of our team lowered the flag at Rothera to mark sun-down. 65 days to go....

Rothera, Antarctica

We have a satellite dish here called ARIES (Antarctic reception of images for environmental science). One of my morning jobs is to check the images coming in through Aries to make sure the dish is working correctly. Each image shows part of Antarctica (outlined in orange) and the cloud above it. This image of the Antarctic Peninsula was captured this morning at 05:00 and shows a tightly furled system heading our way. We've had a lot of snow over the last few hours and winds are reaching 40knots.... better batten down the hatches!

Rothera, Antarctica

I know it looks like another picture of Rothera but we've just realised we've only got 10 more days of sunshine, so I thought I should make the most of it. I took this at 12:50, just 40 minutes before solar noon. It's difficult to say exactly when our last sight of the sun will be but, as is Rothera tradition, we're having a Sun-Down Flag Lowering Ceremony on Friday 18th May.

Rothera, Antarctica

In the Comms Tower. This is where all the official comms (including air traffic control) takes place. It's the orange tower shown in this post, overlooking the runway. In a major incident, this is also where all the base officials muster. There is a big red button at the centre of the front panel labelled Crash Alarm, which takes a lot of will power not to press. This is also where Tom and I go to do our weather observations, as it gives us a good view of the sky and the surrounding area.

During the winter we have radio scheds every evening with all the winter trip parties. There are a few formalities we have to cover during the sched ('What is your location?', 'What have you done today?', 'Are you both safe and well and is your CO monitor working?', 'What are your plans for tomorrow?'). After that we usually have a few minutes to chat and exchange news. I've also been trying to give a weather forecast for the next few days, with varying success. 

Today, we had a particularly special sched. San Martin (the Argentinean base on the mainland, just across Marguerite bay) got in touch with us. We chatted to them for almost an hour, comparing bases, life styles and wintering traditions. There are 24 people wintering at San Martin, all men, and all except four of them with wives and children at home. This is Phil and Mairi (front), Tom and Dr Rob Doc (middle) and George and Adam (background, with George talking to San Martin). It was fantastic to chat with our wintering neighbours.